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Minn. lawmakers send health compromise to governor

After weeks of legislative drama
involving a veto, a failed override, a lawsuit and a last-minute
deal, the Minnesota Legislature on Wednesday approved a compromise
plan to maintain state health coverage for more than 30,000
vulnerable adults.

The bill preserving the General Assistance Medical Care program
is headed to a supportive Gov. Tim Pawlenty after clearing the
House on a 121-12 vote and a final 50-12 Senate vote. The program
had been scheduled to run out of money on April 1.

Top Democrats and the Republican governor struck a deal earlier
this month to extend the program just hours before officials
planned to start switching the patients to a less comprehensive
state plan. The compromise slashes spending while putting hospitals
in charge of coordinating care for patients who include the
homeless, mentally ill, drug addicts and veterans.

"Even though we don't have a lot of money, we're still going to
make sure you get the care that you need," said Democratic Rep.
Erin Murphy of St. Paul, one of the key negotiators.

General Assistance Medical Care covers more than 30,000 people
each month, most of them living on less than $8 a day. Pawlenty
withdrew funding for the program unilaterally last year to help
erase a deficit.

Under the compromise, General Assistance Medical Care will focus
on paying safety-net hospitals to coordinate care and prescriptions
for patients, with the goal of aggressively managing their
conditions to avoid hospitalization and other costly services when
possible. The new program will start in June and the current
program is extended until then.

Most GOP lawmakers united behind the compromise, saying it
showed state leaders could cut costs while still caring for the
poorest residents in Minnesota. All House Republicans voted for the
bill on Wednesday.

"When we are faced with incredibly challenging issues, this
body can work, this process can work for the people that our
programs serve and for the people that pay the bills," said Rep.
Paul Kohls, R-Victoria.

All the no votes in the House came from Democrats, mostly from
areas outside the Twin Cities where hospitals are expected to lose
big on the revamped program.

Rep. Paul Thissen of Minneapolis, one of 11 Democrats running
for governor, was among the critics. He said his colleagues caved
in to Pawlenty's veto threats and settled for too little money to
achieve the changes their bill envisioned.

"This bill is not the best we can do. This bill is not even
better than nothing," Thissen said.

The vote came as state leaders grasped for details of the
federal health care overhaul, which promises new dollars for public
health care programs but also requires the state to put up at least
a half-billion dollars in matching money from mid-2011 through
2014. Minnesota faces a $1 billion deficit through the middle of
next year and a bigger projected shortfall after that.

Pawlenty opposes the federal health care overhaul.

Before the votes, he met privately with leading legislators to
talk about federal funding for the General Assistance Medical Care
patients and other low-income adults. The meeting was inconclusive.
The two sides disagree about the exact cost to the state.